Title Church that nurtures people
1. The Age Without Characters
Among the sounds we often hear today, < There are no people these days! > say. Politically, there is no person who can safely entrust the president, there is no person who can resolve the economic crisis, there is no person who can be highly regarded academically by forming a family, there is no person who creates a great artistic world, and militaryly, there is no person who can make a great work. They say there is no one to do it. In particular, in the field of religion, there is no person whom he respects for his whole life and can respect as a spiritual parent in the true sense of the word.
If so, is our era an era that doesn't need characters? No matter how much I think about it, I feel rather strongly that this is not the case. I think it's our time that we need people who can be trusted political figures, driven and clean economic figures, people with great soul-stirring artistic souls, and those who bow their heads when they hear their name from the heart. But despite this, in our day and age, only the groaning that <there is no character> is heard. Plato was grateful to heaven for being born as a nobleman, being born as a man, and being born as a free man in his life, but he was most grateful for the arrangement of heaven that allowed him to meet him because he was born at the same time as the great man Socrates. I've said thank you. Has not our day been blessed as Plato did? Should we live knowing that we were born in an era when there were no great people? You will be asking this question. There must be great people in each field, but it is said that <there is no>. So what do you do? If there is < no >, I think we will have to raise them now. That's right.
2. The Church Responsible for Developing Characters
One thing we need to point out here is what we mean when we use the word person as a political figure, an academic figure, an economic figure, a religious figure, etc. The meaning of the person used at that time does not refer to an expert in a certain field. A gifted student from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is not called a person. He doesn't even refer to him as a person whose paintings are made of 1 million won per month. The president of a church where tens of thousands of people gather is not called a person. This does not mean that a person who has no expertise in each field and no ability to carry out work is called a person. Then, what elements do we want to include in the word <person>? Perhaps in the word <person>, it means a person of high moral and spiritual character and character, formed by <alpha elements> that must be added in addition to professionalism and the ability to promote that expertise.
Let's ask the question, Who can raise such a person as our age desires? Can schooling do this? It may be possible to develop a clever talent, but it is not. Good living space and good facilities due to economic development? Somehow not.
Prenatal education, early childhood education, Montessori, study abroad, intelligence education, E.Q. developmental education, etc. Can the kind of <character> we desire be nurtured with such education that is popular in our time? What do you think? I think that we all receive the conclusion of <somehow not> in our minds as if it were some kind of 啓示.
Not even schooling. It's not even emotional education. It is not specialized education. We know that this doesn't mean we don't need all of them. It is what makes school education, professional education, and emotional education all live, and thus becomes a <character>. That is the church education and faith training that our church is responsible for. Therefore, it is the church's responsibility to nurture <characters>.
3. How do you develop a character?
So, what should be done about church education? How can we develop such a <character>? What is its essential element? I think you can find it in our text today. The text is the record of the night that Jesus was arrested. As I read the account of Jesus' suffering, I always wondered how the disciples who were with Jesus could have escaped without being caught. It didn't make sense to me that, when the savvy and organized Roman soldiers and the servants of the priests came in droves, they were unable to arrest one of the dozen or so running disciples. However, the question was answered through the text. When the soldiers came, Jesus said, "I am the one you are looking for, and I said to you I am. Take only me and allow these people to go." In other words, Jesus raised his disciples by throwing himself in front of the Roman soldiers. That's right. By giving up on Himself, Jesus raised some of the greatest men since the beginning of history.
Heo Jun’s teacher, who wrote <Donguibogam>, was Yu-tae Yu, a famous scholar of the time. Therefore, not harming this body is the first step to filial piety> At that time, Heo Jun's teacher Yu-tae Yu, before his death, went into a deep mountain without anyone in his family and died alone, so he provided his remains to Heo Jun as medical research materials. I did. Behind Heo Jun's <Donguibogam>, there was such a noble teacher Yutae.
How should our church nurture characters? Jesus made it clear with actions rather than words. What a church needs to develop a character is not a good facility. Not even elite teachers from good colleges. It's not even on a tight budget. If so, what is the way to nurture <character>? It is the very act of Jesus shown in the text. What is that? It is to die for the disciples! is. I believe that when the teachers of our church go out with a passionate religious passion that they will die for the disciple, those <persons> that we are looking forward to in this age will gradually grow in our church. I pray in the name of the holy Lord Esu that our church will become a church that nurtures <characters>.